Environment secretary Steve Reed says trip to US involving Labour staffers not paid for or organised by Labour party
Steve Reed says it is ‘perfectly normal’ for political activists to volunteer in other countries’ election campaigns
Good morning. Steve Reed, the environment secretary, has been doing the morning interview round, and he expected to be talking about the appointment of an independent commission, led by the former Treasury official and former deputy governor of the Bank of England Sir Jon Cunliffe, to consider the future of the water industry. Details were briefed out last night, here is the news release, and here is Helena Horton’s story.
But instead Reed has spent the morning fending off a rather bizarre story about the Trump campaign filing a complaint with election regulators in the US alleging that the Labour party is interfering in the US presidential election. Eleni Courea has the details here.
In an interview with the Today programme, Reed said that it was “perfectly normal” for political activists to volunteer in election campaigns in other countries. In an interview with the Today programme, he said:
It’s up to private individuals what they do with their free time, and it’s actually perfectly normal for people who are interested in politics to go from one country to campaign for a sister party in another country. I‘ve seen Americans in the UK doing that in our elections.
